the sun's been quite kind
by blue and gold
Summary: "You changed me. Your smile saved me." Naruto. Hinata. 28 drabbles.
1. my fair lady

_**the sun's been quite kind**_

by _blue and gold_

* * *

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_.

* * *

_1._ _my fair lady_

"What are you doing here, Naruto." Neji doesn't like intruders. (Especially ones wearing orange. Really. What an awful color. How can you be a _covert_ shinobi and wear _orange._ _Bright_ orange.) He makes this well known.

Naruto's either oblivious, stupid, or doesn't care. (Or very, _very_ brave, but Neji doubts this.) "I—I—" he shifts on his feet, because, _kami, Neji is __**scary**__,_ in bold letters and everything. (Scarier than Sakura-chan. Maybe. But he would _never_ tell her that because she's _Sakura-chan,_ and he likes his face the way it is_.)_ "—I—I'm here t—to see Hi—Hinata-chan." He keeps his hands behind his back—the hands with the flowers for Hinata-chan—and tries not to let his knees shake.

Neji glares, firmly, because, "no," and then, he does what all good, cock–blocking nī-san's do, and he steps back inside the manor and slams the door _right in Naruto's face_.

_Neji may be scary,_ Naruto thinks around the throbbing in his nose, _but he's also kind of a dick._

Not that he would tell him that, or anything.

* * *

_A/N:_

The NaruHina feels just snuck up on me. I swear.

Review? (Or I'll sic Neji on you. Seriously.)


	2. but I liken you to azure

**_the sun's been quite_****_kind_**

by _blue and gold_

* * *

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto._

* * *

_3. but I liken you to azure_

The summer air is warm and soft, and it plays with the ends of her hair, fluttering across her cheeks like a hummingbird's wings, skimming across the soft skin of her arms and legs, ghosting across the nape of her neck. She can feel the warmth of the sun, bathing her as she sits on the veranda of the Hyūga compound, on polished wooden planks that are as old as the name of Konohagakure itself.

It is June, and the sky is a blue, achingly beautiful, that stretches into eons, and she's reminded of azure eyes, of the color of summer and sweet redemption and bitter hope and _him_.

And she's reminded that, _lord,_ she loves him. She loves him because he is something beyond her, beyond this world that binds and constricts—he is limitless. She loves him because he can carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he can _smile—_because he is _courage_ and _will_ and _strength,_ and, _kami,_ he is everything she wishes she could be, and more, _(so much more.)_

"—And, so _I_ said, 'Hey, buddy, if you're not gonna eat it, _I_ will—"

And she turns, like a sunflower towards the east, where she may find her solace.

He walks with his friends—Sasuke, Sakura, Sai, all side by side as they stroll down the road, and she can see flashes of colored cloth through the cracks of the fence—beside the fence line of the Hyūga compound.

"—but the guy just gave me, like, this weird look, like _I_ was crazy! _He_ was the one who was going to throw out a perfectly good bowl of ramen! Can you _believe it?"_

Sakura's voice is exasperated—with an inkling of fondness that she tries and fails to hide—as she answers, "no, Naruto. I can't," and Hinata can see the red of her, close to dark cloth, the imposing form of Uchiha Sasuke, their hands barely touching, but too close for it to be normal. (And, maybe Ino-chan had mentioned that they were _kind–of–sort–of going out, but you can't tell __**any**__one, okay, Hinata?)_

Sai smiles his eerie smile—the artificial one that stretches across his face like plastic—and says, "perhaps it was because of your pen—"

"_Not another word, Sai!"_ is what Sakura shouts.

Naruto screeches, indignantly, "_he didn't see my_—"

"_Naruto, finish that sentence and it'll be the last thing you ever do!"_ is what Sakura warns him with.

Hinata can only blush, and smile, softly, from her vantage point on the porch, behind the fence, because it's a dysfunctional sort of familiarity that they have, but she doesn't think that she's ever known four people who are this close.

Sasuke is about to open his mouth, before he pauses, and turns his head, eyes a bloody crimson that stare at her through a crack in the fence, and _how did he see her?_

Hinata freezes, and feels fear as cold as ice, and the warmth of the summer air plummets to the bitter cold of winter, and she suddenly feels like a child again, terrified of the shadows in the corners and the monsters under her bed.

"Watch'ya lookin' at, Sasuke?" Naruto makes it his business to ask, and he turns his head, glancing through a crack in the fence, and then his eyes meet hers, and it's like the sun comes back out from behind a cloud, and, _kami,_ have his eyes always been so _blue?_ "Oh! Hey, Hinata-chan!" she can see his grin, and it makes her smile back, and she waves shyly.

"H—Hi, Na—Naruto-kun!" and she smiles wider, because she can't help herself, and she can feel the heat rise to the back of her neck, and her face _burns._

There's a moment of silence, and she can feel their eyes on her, before Naruto chatters, "so…um, Hinata-chan—we were gonna go to Ichiraku Ramen to get some, well, ramen—so, uh, do you—I dunno—wanna go with us?"

And he sounds _so_ nervous_,_ and _so_ hopeful, and her heart _soars_ on feathered wings and soft breezes, and she smiles and blushes and stands with jittery legs as she stutters, "I—I—I_wouldloveto!"_ and blushes, before clasping her hands over her mouth, because, _oh, that was embarrassing!_ "I—I'll b—b—be right out!"

Naruto just grins (a flash of white teeth against tan skin), and she can see a blur of yellow and white an orange through the fence cracks as he says, "okay!"

And she stands—her heart _pounds_ like a drum to an unknown beat—but, as she makes her way down to the steps, she feels as light as the June air, and she knows that this is love.

* * *

_A/N:_

Hinata and Team 7. (Because I can.)

Review?


End file.
